Memoirs of a RAFian

[Cloak]

To think, I thought her storybwas gonna be boring.

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWELVE:
Impenetrable Campus

The path was certainly overgrown. Branches slapped her face with cold, slimy leaves. Thorny bushes poked and scratched her, and pulled on her clothing. The ground was loose and infirm, except around plant roots. But she still plowed her way through them all . . . only to face plant into a very shallow stream.

It was cold. It was wet. It didn't matter. Only one thing mattered. She gripped her slightly damp stake of holly tree wood. Her favored weapon for fighting vampires. It was all she required, it was all she needed. She was so close to fulfilling her destiny, so close to being a normal girl again. So close . . .

She pulled herself up and staggered to the others side of the babbling brooke, and she wore a determined look with unyielding eyes, as stormy as the clouds threatening precipitation overhead. Her hair was an unruly mess with bits of twigs and leaves in it, making her look rather like a feral animal.

She continuedd to push her way through the underbrush, no longer certain that there was a path here. But that was an extraneous detail, superfluous. All she had to do . . . all she had to do is kill Madre de Vampyra. The Mother, the Queen . . . .

Her grip on her wooden stake galvanized to an iron grip, as her palms and hands sweated in anticipation. She was focused entirely on her goal, not the naggling details of going about doing it. They were unnecessary. To be ignored. To be kept to the periphery of thought.

The thick forest overgrowth seemed to thin out slightly. She instictively followed this, and found that that it opened up into a sunny field before a wall at least ten, fifteen feet high. The wall exterior was behind a forcefield that had to be looked at a certain way to be visible.

But she did not see this forcefield, due to her severe tunnel vision. She just saw the opening archway in the wall, which was unblocked and unencumbered. And unguarded. This was too good to be true.

She dashed full tilt at the archway, only to smack headlong into the forcefield that she wasn't aware of being there.

"Thing about tunnel vision," a voice said to her right, "it always comes around to bite you in the butt."

She was on her feet in minutes, and she thew her stake at the stranger's heart. But the stake stayed frozen, in midair. The stranger didn't move. It was as if the stake just gave up halfway there and decided to break physics as well. This only elicited a sigh of resignation from the stranger.

"I'm a Realm Walker, child," came the figure, in a surprisingly calm and even manner. "I'm not a vampire. I cannot be 'slayed' by you, Slayer or not."

She looked as if she were planning to attack him, and he replied immediately, "Do not waste your energy, child. You cannot defeat me."

She ignored him, and prepared to spring at him, only to discover her arms pinioned to her side and her feet no longer touching the ground. She wasn't too terribly comfortable, but she was in no lethal danger. Not immediately, anyway.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Slayer?

"Lemme go!" Daphne snarled.

"No," Cloak said. "At least, not until you calm down and allow yourself to clear your thoughts."

"Lemme go," Daphne threatened.

"No."

"Stop protecting Madre de Vampyra, and let me fulfill my destiny!"

"That would be difficult," Cloak said, sitting upon an earthen chair, "as Madre de Vampyra was killed a little more than a year ago."

"Lies!"

"You can chose not to believe it, but that does not mean that it is not tr--"

"We ain't afraid of nothin'. (We ain't afraid.)
We ain't afraid. (Oooooooh.)
We ain't afraid of nothin'.
We ain't afraid, (oh, oh, we are not afraid.)
We ain't afraid of nothin'.
We ain't afraid (ooh).
We ain't afraid of nothin'.
We ain't afraid (ooh, ooh)."

"GH, can you go sing somewhere else?"

"(Oooooo!) Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer!
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid y'all, we ain't afraid!
(I ain't afraid, I ain't afraid!)
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer! (Big bad Slayer!)
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid y'all, we ain't afraid! (Who's afraid of her?)"

"GH, you aren't helping."

"Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer!
(I ain't afraid, I ain't afraid!)
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid (oh) y'all, we ain't afraid (oh)!
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer!
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid y'all, we ain't afraid, uh!
Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer!
(We ain't afraid of nothin', we ain't afraid!)"

"GH!"

"Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid (oh) y'all, we ain't (oh) afraid!
(We ain't afraid of nothin', we ain't afraid!)
(We are not afraid,) Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer, the big bad Slayer!
(We ain't afraid of nothin', we ain't afraid)
(We are not afraid) Who's afraid of the big bad Slayer, we ain't afraid y'all, we ain't afraid!
(Who's afraid of her?)"

"Excuse me," Cloak said, sighing heavily, addressing Daphne.

Golden-scarlet enveloped GH and took him over the wall into the forum proper, and properly dumped him in the lake. Cloak could hear GH's protest of "Not cool!"

Then Cloak turned to Daphne, and said, cordially, "Now. Where were we?"


Song lyrics: here

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
Stonewalled

"Now," Cloak said, almost conversationally. "What sre you really here for?"

"Save your stupid twaddle for someone else, Walker!" Daphne spat savagely. But Cloak did not get angry, but sympathetic. "Let me out of this damnable thing!"

"Such anger," Cloak said, commenting on a likeness he noted. "Such rage."

"Let me go!" Daphne continued to rage, not hearing Cloak, who looked on with a sad expression upon his face. "I have to kill her. I have to kill the Vampire Queen!"

"But it is as I have told you." Cloak said, losing none of his poise. "You cannot kill what's already dead. Unless we're talking Black Lanterns, because that complicates things."

"Lies!"

"How so?"

"What?"

"How is that a lie?" Cloak said, calmly and almost serenely. Daphne didn't reply. She couldn't come up with anything to back up what she believed. It made her a right bit better than people like Bern Bridges and Bill O'Reilly. "If you can't say precisely how it is a lie, doesn't it follow that there might be truth in it?"

"No." she said, stonewalling.

Cloak looked at her, easily recognizing something readily similar. If he could stop her from doing that . . . perhaps she could avoid the trauma that . . .

"How so?" Cloak replied pleasantly.

"Let me go," she said, apparently unable to conjure a suitable argument.

"When you less of a danger to yourself and others, Daphne," Cloak said.

"How'd you know my name?"

"Oh, your uncle -- Jarvis, I think it was -- called us to see if we saw you." Cloak answered easily and benignly. "Seemed to think that you might be losing yourself to your ambition, to your obsession."

"He worries too much," she snapped.

"Or, perhaps, he sees your descent into darkness easier than you do," Cloak suggested gently.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she snarled.

"Trust me, child," Cloak said, firmly but solemnly, "I do. For I have had my own descent into such darkness."

Silence brewed at this statement.

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
A Break in Fanaticism

The silent spanned longer, and Daphne seemed uncomfortable by the silence, whereas Cloak did not seem fazed.

"What do you mean by that?" her tone was no longer as harsh, as abrasive, as she was before.

"You aren't the only one who has to battle inner darkness," Cloak said. He did not talk down to her. He had always hated that when he was a teenager. He was often talked about as if he wasn't there. He wasn't fond of that, as well. "We all have had darknesses within us that threathened to consume us. Some succeed in managing it, even dispelling it. Others -- they are engulfed by it. They become without scruples, without values, without . . .  without mercy."

"You mean me, don't you?" she said, she wasn't even fighting her restraints anymore. Cloak had garnered her undivided attention.

"Well, not yet, young Daphne," Cloak said. "But if you continue upon the path thst you've laid out for yourself, one of destruction without mercy or remorse, and that very well be your fate."

"And how do you know this?" she said. The roughness and coarseness of her voice was smoothjng over and became more genial. Her natural tone of voice, her humanity triumphing over a savage nature. Again, Cloak could understand this perfectly. She had to master her Slayer savagery just like he had to master the brute force and unadulterated power of the Elements. "How do you know all this?"

"You want my story, I take it," Cloak said. "Very well. I can tell you've felt similar pain that I have felt."

"My parents --" she blurted before she could stop herself.

"You lost them, didn't you?"

"Please, don't talk about them," she said, lashing out not jn anger but sadness. Cloak could practically feel it.

"You cannot hide from you feelings, Daphne," Cloak said. "I have tried it myself. Suprressing your emotions, bottling up the anger and rage at the unfairness of it all. But doing that will do you no favors."

"I don't want to talk about it." she said.

"As you wish," Cloak said.

"Did you . . ." she stopped herself again.

"No, I didn't lose my parents." Cloak said. "At least, I think my father is still alive. My mom had chased him away, and made me think it my fault for him doing so. That was about a hundred of your years ago."

"My years?"

"Yes," Cloak said, "one Nexus year is equivalent to ten Earth years."

"You're an alien?"

"In a manner of speaking," Cloak said, nonchalantly, as Daphne looked awestruck. She must have been rather sheltered, considering the sheer amount of alien invasions over the past year.

[redtailedsaffa]

That gh bit...

[Cloak]

And I have had that scene in my head since about Chapter 8. It wasn't a part of the original outline.

New chapter.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
Vulnerability

Silence had once again blossomed.

"Aliens exist?"

"Yes." Cloak said. Part of him wanted to call her on how she could not know this with the Heilin and Skrull invasions of just last year. He did not want to be antagonistic.

Silence once again blossomed, and Cloak believed that Daphne was losing her fanaticism about Madre de Vampyra, and beginning to actually allowing herself to feel. It was slow, of course. But she had clearly closed off her feelings -- because they probably would overwhelming for her. Cloak understood this, as he had done the same himself.

"Your mother chased your father way?"

"Yes," Cloak said candidly. "And she told me the proper way to slash my wrists."

"What?"

"Yes," Cloak replied, matter-of-factly, "I already had the knife at my wrists, though. But that did not change the fact she still tried to goad me into doing it. Then she sneered 'I knew you couldn't do it' before stalking off."

"She . . ."

"Yes. I was no longer of any use to her by then," Cloak said, as if just a statement of fact, which it was. "As such, I needed to be thrown away."

"Thrown away?"

"Yes, Daphne. You see, my mother is -- or was, I don't know if she's still alive -- an incurable narcissist. Everything was about her, only her and no one else. She had severe control and anger issues. My younger sister isn't much better."

"Why did you -- why didn't you -- uh . . ."

"Go through with it? It was truly the nadir of my life, despite everything that has happened since," Cloak said. "But why? My older sister -- my favorite sister -- and her daughter. They were not there. But their mere presence in my life gave me a light that I'm not even sure they know about. I could not harm them in that way by going through it. I love them too much to do that to them."

Silence once again bloomed between the two. Daphne didn't even seem to realize that she was no longer being restrained.

"And thought my parents dying was bad."

"We all have our darknesses," Cloak said. "It does not diminish or invalidate them. We all have our struggles to get pass."

Cloak paused as he looked at Daphne.

"I am only guessing, but you have not allowed yourself to mourn their death, have you?" Cloak said, gently.

"I . . . I . . . don't know . . ."

[redtailedsaffa]

One of the exceptions where talking the antagonist down does work.

[Cloak]

:noncommittal shrug: Sometimes, it works.

New chapter. Sorry about the brevity. Next one will be longer . . . or not. I think I might slightly extend this beyond the requisite twenty chapters.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
Confusion

"That's quite alright," Cloak said. "Deapite being th the Slayer, you are still a teenager, not some mindless weapon for someone to aim and unleash at will. You are a teenager, and such confusion, I hear, is common at your age."

"You hear?"

"Yes, when I was a teenager, I didn't have such confusions." Cloak admitted. "My mother made most, if not all, of my decisions for me. But I was not innocent in this, for I had allowed her to do so."

"How is that your fault?"

"Inaction is a decision, young one," Cloak said. "Doing nothing is a decision that can have negative outcomes, easily. Nothing in this world, or any other, is so cut and dry, not really."

Then he looked upon the young slayer, confused and conflicted.

"But I can sense that you are still conflicted," Cloak said.

"I am . . ." she said, not knowing why she was opening up to this stranger. Perhaps it was his calm understanding or his soothing words, but point was that she was opening up. Something she did not do since her activating as the "Chosen One", the Slayer of her generation.

"Life is messy, if I remember that guru correctly," Cloak said, thoughtfully. "Something about energy being blocked and chakras . . ."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Daphne said, earnest.

"Well, I don't pretend to be an expert on chakras," Cloak said, with a shrug. "But they are similar to the stop offs on Epiphany Road -- and, well, it might help you. I try to meditate and 'unlock the chakras' semi-frequently, myself."

"I still don't know what you said," Daphne said, slowly, "but if it can help me from not feeling so goddamn miserable all the time . . . well . . . where do we start?"

[Cloak]

New chapter.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
Earth Chakra

The two sat opposite each other, Daphne's clothing having been mended magically by Broken, who stood off to the side, watching this, curious. And even her uncle had arrived by this time, but allowed this to proceed, hoping it would help. Both had their eyes closed, meditating.

"Where do we start?" Daphne said.

"We shall start at the Earth Chakra, located at the base of the spine," Cloak said, though he was uncertain abiut the details of this. "It deals with survival, and is blocked with fear."

"Fear?"

"Yes," Cloak said. "Lay your fears before you."

"I'm not afraid of anything."

"Daphne," Cloak said, unintentionally sounding like a parent, "this won't do you any good if you're not honest with yourself."

She took a deep breath, and said, "Okay."

"Lay your fears before you." Cloak intoned. "What do you fear the most?"

She hesitated before speaking again.

"I'm not good enough," she said, seeing herself in a vision as a substandard Slayer. "A hindrance to my parents, and Uncle Jarvis."

Jarvis made to protest this, but Broken stopped him. This was about Daphne.

"Fear of failure is common," Cloak said. "It is an insecurity manifested as a fear. And we all have a tendency to see ourselves as lesser than we often are. Often many with this fear seek to overachieve and drive themselves into the ground. This is not healthy, and, oftentimes, untrue. In your case, it is untrue.

"Surrender that fear. Let your fear flow down the proverbial creek."

Daphne took a deep breath, and let out a breath of relief.

"You have unblocked, unlocked (whatever), your Earth Chakra," Cloaky said.

"Let's continue," Daphne said.

[guitarhero01234]

. . . And then gh pops in playing show tunes, right?

[redtailedsaffa]

You better not. I remember this particular episode, and it was beautiful. And a nice little nod to our culture as well.

[Cloak]

Yeah, I'll admit that "The Guru" is where I first heard of chakras, ignorant of anything about them. And it's that episode that this "opening chakras" spiel comes from, and referenced at least twice before in the series.

New chapter.

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Water Chakra

"Next?" Daphne asked, as Horse, Mithril, and GH joined Jarvis and Broken in watching this rather so-so spectacle.

"Next is the Water Chakra, which deals with pleasure, and is blocked with guilt." Cloak said. "Now, look at all the guilt with burdens you so. What do you blame yourself for?"

There was a deep silence as Daphne considered, with her eyes cloaked.

"My parents died, and I survived." Daphne said, finally.

"Survivor's guilt is not an uncommon thing," Cloak said. "But it is not your fault. Accept the reality that this happened, but do not let them cloud and poison you. If you are to be a positive influence on the world, you need to forgive yourself."

"I . . . I can't . . ."

"You must." Cloak said. "You need to forgive yourself. I know that it is not an easy task, especially upon someone who has the burden of being a Slayer. But you must be able to forgive yourself."

It took some time and coaxing before Daphne managed to take a deep breath and exhaled rather heavily.

"Congratulations," Cloak said. "You have opened your Water Chakra."

***

Meanwhile, Gaz and Shanker watched this from afar, and Shanker wasn't pleased.

"Why is Cloak helping that monster?!" Shanker demanded hotly.

"Well," Gaz said, with certain amusement, "you could go down and demand an answer from him."

Shanker glared at Gaz with narrowed eyes.

"That monster killed every last vampire in Fangs U!" Shanker countered, not addressing the question posed.

"'Fangs U'? Who came up that name? A string of kindergartners?" Gaz said, sardonically.

"You're missing the point!" Shanker said. "She is a murderer! She killed with reckless abandon, and without remorse!"

"Were you there?" Gaz asked.

"What?"

"Were you there?" Gaz repeated.

"No, but --"

"Then how could you possibly know that she is a murderer?"

This stymied Shanker, but Gaz decided to answer for him.

"You assumed she commited those atrocities. You assumed that she is a monster, simply because she's the Slayer." Gaz said with a succinct finality. "And that she may be all you expound, but she is also a teenager. She is susceptible to the emotions and two-dimensional thinking that all teenagers are vulnerable to."

"That's no excuse for being a genocidal monster!" Shanker said.

"You already have your mind made up on her guilt," Gaz pointed out. "She could very well be innocent."

"Slayers are not innocent," Shanker said, mulishly. "Not now, not ever."

[redtailedsaffa]

This is not good. DAMMIT SHANKER YOU'LL RUIN EVERYTHING

[Cloak]

Hmmmm . . .

New chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY:
Fire Chakra

"What's next?" Daphne asked.

"It is the Fire Chakra, located in the stomach." Cloak said. "This chakra deals with willpower, and is blocked by shame."

"Wait, then where is the Water Chakra located?" GH asked, as Phoenix joined them. Cloak ignored him.

He addressed Daphne, "Now. What are you ashamed of?"

She fell silent for a moment as she considered.

"I murdered an entire club of vampires," Daphne said, actually questioning the morality of that decision, and feeling shame for it. "I broke the nest. No Slayer had done it such a way before. I lost myself. I lost my humanity."

Jarvis looked away at this. In his view, that wasn't Daphne's fault at all, but his. It wasn't, nor should have, been her shame. It was his. And his alone. He hadn't trained her on the subtleties of Slayers. They were only supposed to slay creatures of evil, and there some vampires that were turned against their will.

"I will abandon my Slayer duties. I will never vampire hunt again," she said. But her tone was indecisive.

"You will never find balance in yourself if you deny this part of your life. You are the Slayer and, therefore, you are a vampire hunter. But you understand now that there are good vampires and bad ones, and that will shape your outlook in this from this day forward."

Daphne still had her eyes closed, but she seemed uncertain. "Others won't see it hat way . . ."

"Universal popularity is an impossibility," Cloak said. "And one that only the unwise and gullible seek out, Daphne. You cannot control what others think of you. You can only change what you think of yourself."

This seemed to soothe Daphne somewhat.

"You've recognized your shame," Cloak said. "Now let it go, let it flow down the proverbial creek."

She took a deep breath, and then exhaled, feeling lighter upon doing so.

"You have opened your Fire Chakra." Cloak said.

"You still haven't answered my question," GH said, petulantly.

[redtailedsaffa]

OMG gh SHHHHHH